The castes of the army ant Dorylus helvolus

Ants; their structure, development and behavior, by William Morton Wheeler

hanjeanwat:

n480_w1150 (by BioDivLibrary)

Ants, bees, and wasps by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

New York :Appleton,1897..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/9657360

geo-ebooks:

e-book:

The ants of the Baltic amber (1914) via archive.org

Artwork by John D. Dawson from the book ‘The Art Of National Geographic, A Century of Illustration’

animal-anatomy:

Ant Anatomy from http://www.theanimalfiles.com/anatomy/ant_anatomy.html

brain-smudge:

Ants!

1. This picture of an ant is (said to be) from one of the rarest scientific books of the 17th century. ‘Micrographia Nova’ [1687] was the response by Johann Griendel to the landmark Robert Hooke treatise, ‘Micrographia’ from 1655. Griendel’s improvements to the microscope provided a greater field of vision and it was the first German book devoted to the microscope. The image comes from the University of Oklahoma Libraries History of Science Collection and the whole book (in photocopy quality) is available at Kurt Stuber’s wonderful online library. See also: Microscopy books at the Gemmary. {Info. from the Digital Clendening} 

2. by William Morton Wheeler, from Ants of the Baltic Amber 

3. William Morton Wheeler inked this iconic illustration of the striking polymorphism displayed among members of an ant colony. 

4. This is an illustration of Argentine ant Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera:Formicidae), by EH Zeck.

5. ‘Histoire naturelle des Hymenoptères’ Series: ‘Grandidier, Alfred, Histoire physique, naturelle et politique de Madagascar. v. 20’ by Henri de Saussure

6. The yellow ant, or troublesome ant (Formica molesta) 

lindahall:

A selection of plates from Maria Merian’s Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensium, 1705.

rhamphotheca:

World’s Smallest Fly Decapitates Ants

by Jennifer Viegas

A newly discovered species, Euryplatea nanaknihali, is the world’s smallest fly, and has the rather unsavory habit of biting off the heads of ants, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Annals of the Entomological Society of America.

At just .4 mm in length, the fly is only a fraction of an inch in size. A house fly is 15 times bigger. A fruit fly is 5 x larger.

The new member to the insect record books is also the first of its genus to be discovered in Asia. Members of its fly family (Phoridae) are all believed to decapitate ants. The process isn’t a simple bite and patooie either.

Members of the Phoridae family lay eggs in the bodies of ants. The resulting larvae feed in the ants’ heads, eventually causing decapitation. Not easy being an ant! On the upside, from a “pest” control perspective, some of these phorid flies are being used to try to control fire ants in the southern United States.

Nature seems to have pitted the world’s smallest flies against the world’s smallest ants.

Author Brian Brown of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County explained that the newfound flies can probably decapitate ants that have heads as small as .5 millimeters. Although this is speculation at now for the new species, Brown believes it’s highly likely because the fly’s only known relative, Euryplatea eidmanni, is known to parasitize ants in Equatorial Guinea…

(read more: Discovery News)       (image: Inna-Marie Strazhnik)

Hymenoptera by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Australian insects..
Sydney,W. Brooks[1907].
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/25450237